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Wisdom and Ignorance

327 aphorisms  ·  10 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/kl2zmoog  ·   Fair (1000 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997 by Barry Cantor

Today's children are required to learn what most people in former times were forbidden to know.

Ashleigh Brilliant, Brilliant Thoughts (copyright info: www.ashleighbrilliant.com), in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/ow2rizet  ·   Fair (1056 ratings)  ·  submitted 1998

In order to keep an open mind, I am trying to avoid learning anything.

Ashleigh Brilliant, Brilliant Thoughts (copyright info: www.ashleighbrilliant.com), in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/wagakfth  ·   Fair (945 ratings)  ·  submitted 1999

Learning to shrug is the beginning of wisdom.

Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/inomue9p  ·   Fair (1073 ratings)  ·  submitted 1999 by Erwin van Moll

There is no intellectual exercise which is not ultimately useless.

Jorge Luis Borges, "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote", in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/bza7uu5d  ·   Fair (633 ratings)  ·  submitted 1999 by Erwin van Moll

My advanced age has taught me the resignation of being Borges.

Jorge Luis Borges, "El informe de Brodie", in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/kiytmq1q  ·   Fair (1036 ratings)  ·  submitted 1999 by Erwin van Moll

I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities that I have visited, all my ancestors... Perhaps I would have liked to be my father, who wrote but has the decency of not publishing.

Jorge Luis Borges, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/e9njxakr  ·   Fair (136 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?

Kelvin Throop, III, in Science and Religion and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/svogwyfm  ·   Fair (76 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.

Edgard Varese, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/e2icakpf  ·   Fair (49 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

James Thurber, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/rupnqvyt  ·   Fair (177 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Truly great madness can not be achieved without significant intelligence.

Henrik Tikkanen, in Science and Religion and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/bucadpxy  ·   Fair (340 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said, "I don't know."

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/t9jmvbpa  ·   Fair (178 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

A witty saying proves nothing.

Voltaire, in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hcrgr6oa  ·   Fair (349 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

Voltaire, in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/kteay1fd  ·   Fair (112 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/uvmow3r4  ·   Fair (76 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.

Mark Van Doren, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/byjgwlzg  ·   Fair (142 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/r0a9zwmr  ·   Fair (121 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/dkwycxon  ·   Fair (38 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

Clear writers assume, with a pessimism born of experience, that whatever isn't plainly stated the reader will invariably misconstrue.

John R. Trimble, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/3laiwzst  ·   Fair (88 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

Harry S Truman, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/g8ncpo30  ·   Fair (517 ratings)  ·  submitted 1997

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody has read.

Mark Twain, in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance